How would you react to a relative stealing your wedding rings to buy drugs?

It might depend on my relationship with my sister, but my first thought was to report the theft to the police.

Did she file a police report? Did the pawn shop?

Dealing with a loved one struggling with addiction is never easy. My personal stance is that you should not give back trust too easily, this isn’t so much her “sister” as it is an “addict,” and although she may love and want to help her sister, once an addict will go so far as to steal from you, they can’t really be trusted until they address and receive treatment for their illness and behave in a way to earn back that trust.
In the same sense, in my mind, it is important to keep those two distinct differences in perspective. Yes, her sister stole the rings (presumably), but her sister is also suffering from a disease that can make most people do some really despicable things once it gets its claws in them.

You can’t help people that don’t want to be helped, no, but whether or not you’re ready to give up on trying to get them to accept help or to see the problem is entirely up to the individual. I don’t think that I would necessarily approach this as if the sister were in a healthy state of mind and body and just stole something so sentimentally valuable out of pure evil, because I doubt that is really what motivated this awful behavior.

The pawn shop should documentation for the rings. Loved ones should be treated the same a anyone stealing. If they are not it becomes “ENABLING” and they will never get straight.

Tough love.
I would say that I KNOW she stole the rings and that as long as she is using and not actively seeking rehab, that until the time comes, if ever, that she can own her behaviors and offer a heartfelt and humble apology for her poor choices, you will have no further contact. The end.
Sad yes, but not acceptable.

Stealing and lying is abusive behavior, drug issues or not.
I have dropped friends that have lied to me and been emotionally unstable, nobody should put up with this sort of thing, ever!

I’m in the tough love camp. I would call the cops and cut off the sister until she gets her shit together. If people keep allowing her to stay in their lives, it is much easier for her to stay in denial—there are many forms of “enabling”.

Like all of the others are suggesting, I would have reported it to the cops. I have dealt with a situation like this before and sometimes you have to go to the cops to see any progress. I know you guys don’t want to see her on drugs, so an arrest could be what pulls her back to reality and shows her what she is doing is not good.

Best of luck. I have seen situations like these tear families apart. I hope that you guys can find some help of some sort for the sister.

She needs tough love. Personally, I would call the cops and try to make an arrangement where I would drop the theft charges if the sister agrees to enter rehab and clean up.

I would confront her (it sounds like that was done) tell her I will help her get into rehab if she will go. If she refuses I would cut off communication with her. She would be dead to me until she resurrects herself and decides to get off her addiction. Sounds easier than it is of course. Stealing money is one thing, and I would also take drastic measures, but my wedding rings? Something so irreplaceable? It is beyond comprehension to me. But, drug addicts tend to lose their reasoning and ethical boundary capacity.

I’d ring the police & ask them to crack down hard on the buggers.

Well, it would piss me off for sure. But that person needs help, and if I were close to them, I’d like to think I would do what I can to try and help them. Problem with a lot of people with addictions though is, there’s only so much you do to help them, if they don’t want to help themselves. I never ripped anyone off when I was drinking daily, but I do know that if you don’t want the help, you won’t take it.
It’s also a bigger problem if the person won’t admit to having the problem.
Although some trust issues would be broken, I wouldn’t just abandon the sister.

I would try an intervention (probably won’t work), but I would then cut off contact if she is stealing.

If she has to resort to stealing wedding rings to buy drugs, I wouldn’t try to recover the money – simply because I don’t believe I could ever get it back. My personal response would be to have nothing more to do with the relative. I would not be able to pretend it didn’t happen, and it’s not like anything I could do would “punish” her for what she did, since she appears to be living in a private hell already. All I could do is protect myself from future damage.

I would not call the police on a family member. Not over property.

Identified with evidence… Time for a short vacation in the Pokey.

She is no longer the sister you knew. She has undeniably demonstrated that the drugs have turned her into a lying, resource black hole. Every second you wait, you are throwing more money, time, and emotional energy into the trash. She has become a hole that cannot be filled. Seal it now.

I would report it to the police and cut her off.